Culinary Nostalgia ─ Regional Food Culture and the Urban Experience in Shanghai

It is universally understood that, no matter how sophisticated a palate one may have, it is the food of one's childhood that provides comfort in trying times. Swislocki (History, Brown University) shows how this "culinary nostalgia" is raised to an art in China. As archetype of this, he chooses Shanghai, a crossroads city that is home to many immigrants from other parts of China. First, however, Swislocki gives a fascinating history of Chinese regional food and how it was celebrated by poets and philosophers. He then moves to the growth of Shanghai, including laments for the loss of the honey nectar peach, the cultivation of which was eradicated by urban sprawl in the 1800s. The regional restaurants that opened to give workers a taste of home soon became gathering places and centers of nostalgia. Swislocki follows food in Shanghai through the Japanese occupation and the Maoist determination to homogenize Chinese cuisine. The fact that the memory of taste is more powerful than politics is shown by the emergence of the regional restaurants and the growth of Shanghai "family dining" on traditional fare unaltered by the changes in government. Annotation c2009 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)